New light-rail cars sport lower floors, sleek design

Aaron Mentzer, Community Involvement Specialist with the Utah Transit Authority sent in a post about new light-rail vehicles:

Utah Transit Authority Debuts New Low-Floor Light Rail Vehicles

The most obvious difference between the new vehicles and the existing TRAX fleet is their aerodynamic shape: rounded edges, large windows and a streamlined fiberglass front end. The vehicles all feature the new UTA paint scheme, similar to that seen on FrontRunner, MAX, and UTA express buses.

On Friday morning, June 18, over 200 people took part in the inaugural ride aboard UTA’s new S70 light rail vehicles. Elected officials, members of the public, and UTA employees gathered at the future 5600 West TRAX Station in West Jordan (just east of the future Mountain View Corridor), and after a brief introduction by UTA general manager Mike Allegra, a two-car train of the new vehicles pulled into the station platform.

The key new feature is the low floor of the vehicle – it is only a few inches higher than the station platform, instead of several feet (as with the current UTA TRAX fleet). Passengers simply press a button and a ramp deploys from below the door, allowing them to pass directly from the platform to the train.

UTA has purchased a total of 77 new light rail vehicles that will be used on the Mid-Jordan, West Valley, Airport and Draper TRAX lines. Manufactured by Siemens in Sacramento, California, the vehicles are being delivered at a rate of approximately one per week.UTA has already taken delivery of 10 new vehicles and is testing them on a segment of the future Mid-Jordan TRAX line near Daybreak in South Jordan.

8 thoughts on “New light-rail cars sport lower floors, sleek design”

The low floor feature of the vehicle sounds good. Actually everything about the vehicle sounds great. In my opinion online selling of tickets is a good idea to incorporating web development. This is a great article!

What a great thread. I have been in a wheelchair for the past 12 years and the lowering of the floors will be a godsend to me and people in wheelchair like me. I look forward to more information on these low floor light rail vehicles.
Good work guys.